matted branches of the thicket, if they thought of
it at all; but presently it grew louder, and they could not imagine what
it proceeded from. It was a sort of hissing sound, at once shrill and
hoarse, quite impossible to describe accurately.

As it grew louder and louder, and seemed to be approaching them, the
women manifested some alarm.

"Oh!" shrieked Serafina "I hope it's not a snake; I shall die if it is;
I am so terrified by the horrid, crawling creatures."

"But it can't possibly be a snake," said Leander, reassuringly; "in such
cold weather as this the snakes are all torpid and lying in their holes
underground, stiffer than so many sticks."

"Leander is right," added the pedant, "this cannot be a snake; and
besides, snakes never make such a sound as that at any time. It must
proceed from some wild creature of the wood that our invasion has
disturbed; perhaps we may be lucky enough to capture it and find it
edible; that would be a piece of good fortune, indeed, quite like a
fairy-tale."

Meantime Scapin was listening attentively to the strange,
incomprehensible sound, and watching keenly that part of the thicket
from which it seemed to come. Presently a movement of the underbrush
became noticeable, and just as he motioned to the company to keep
perfectly quiet a magnificent big gander emerged from the bushes,
stretching out his long neck, hissing with all his might, and waddling
along with a sort of stupid majesty that was most diverting--closely
followed by two geese, his good, simple-minded, confiding wives, in
humble attendance upon their infuriated lord and master.

"Don't stir, any of you," said Scapin, under his breath, and I will
endeavour to capture this splendid prize"--with which the clever scamp
crept softly round behind his companions, who were still seated in a
circle on the rug, so lightly that he made not the slightest sound; and
while the gander--who with his two followers had stopped short at sight
of the intruders--was intently examining them, with some curiosity
mingled with his angry defiance, and apparently wondering in his stupid
way how these mysterious figures came to be in that usually deserted
spot, Scapin succeeded, by making a wide detour, in getting behind the
three geese unseen, and noiselessly advancing upon them, with one rapid,
dexterous movement, threw his large heavy cloak over the coveted prize.
In another instant he had the struggling gander, still enveloped in the
clo